


hey, that's not the spirit

by vivalagay



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Ghost/Living Person AU, Humor, M/M, ghost!minhyuk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-18 10:32:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12386388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivalagay/pseuds/vivalagay
Summary: "But... you're dead?" The ghost stares at him, brows furrowed, eyes taking in every inch of the room and his hands that he seems to believe not to be a part of his body. "You know that, right?""I am?" His arms fall limp at his side. "Huh, I was wondering why people looked so scared to see me.”or, Hyungwon summons the wrong ghost.





	hey, that's not the spirit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Acrossthegalaxy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acrossthegalaxy/gifts).



> the humor wasn't applied very well but i managed to only throw in one (1) bad pun besides the title fkjs i guess you can say the humor is here in... _spirit_
> 
> -laughing machine-

"You're not the right one."

The ghost—the  _wrong_  ghost—is perched atop the dark staircase leading from his basement. He crosses two arms over his chest at this, offended, blond hair framing a frowning face. "Well, hello to you, too."

Hyungwon ignores him and jogs up the staircase. He can always try again tomorrow, or the day after that. He'd known better than following the steps on how to speak to the dead guy from his class within just five steps written on a pink, ghost whisperer blog. 

The Dead Guy isn't—well,  _wasn't_ —Hyungwon's friend. He isn't sure he's ever actually said anything to him that'd been longer than three words. The Dead Guy was just the student who'd filled the seat beside him in class, and quietly too, so it pretty much made him the perfect classmate.

The Dead Guy was also just the student who happened to die a few hours after Hyungwon apologized for accidentally leaving the pen he'd borrowed from him at home.

 _"Hey!"_  the ghost calls after Hyungwon, scrambling up the stairs behind him. "How am I not — where are you going?"

"You should probably leave," Hyungwon tells him. He pushes open the door and the kitchen illuminates the darkened space. Hyungwon awkwardly blinks around the light as he enters, and, unfortunately, the ghost follows in his footsteps. "Look, I didn't mean to call you. It was a mistake. You should probably leave now."

His voice is a little more commanding in hopes that it'll send him on his way. Hyungwon thinks reasonably one would accept this and leave, but the ghost is already distracted, running his fingers across Hyungwon's wooden table then gaping at the tips of them as if he'd never noticed that he had fingers before.

"Um, hello?"

The ghost jumps, as if all this time Hyungwon wasn't speaking to him. "Sorry, I'm just having a — I don't know. I might be high?"

"But... you're dead?" The ghost stares at him, brows furrowed, eyes taking in every inch of the room and his hands that he seems to believe not to be a part of his body. "You know that, right?"

"I am?" His thin arms fall limp at his side. "Huh, I was wondering why people looked so scared to see me.”

 

 

 

. . . 

 

 

 

Frankly, Hyungwon doesn't quite understand entirely how to summon a ghost. 

There were probably more guidelines to this, or maybe something more sensible and detailed. Maybe a supernatural chant you're supposed to know, some top secret, ghost handshake you have to have down in order to properly call on a spirit. Maybe he wasn't supposed to bound the spirit with a candy-cane-lane-scented candle. He doesn't really know how closely connected he is supposed to be to a ghost to summon them, or if there's some special code he's supposed to say to lead this guy from the afterlife, or something. Hyungwon usually knows not to make dumb decisions when he's desperate.

This—a random, confused ghost sitting in his bedroom during finals week—is what he gets for figuring out how to summon a ghost on a blog.

"I'm Minhyuk," the ghost tells him, nonchalantly, like they're just two guys sitting together for a cup of coffee. 

Hyungwon carelessly ignores the ghost—Minhyuk, apparently—as he scrolls through the pink blog for any explanation. Any way to undo all of this. But he's fucked up so bad that even the terribly written blog and Google don't even know how the hell to fix this.

Minhyuk isn't too concerned with being ignored. He travels the room, touching the walls, desk, duvet and pillows, as if all of this is foreign to him. "You sure I'm dead?"

He reaches Hyungwon's bookshelf, testing the feel of it on his fingers.

"I'm sure," Hyungwon confirms.  _"Don't touch that —!"_

His tiny plant slips from Minhyuk's grip, vase shattering on the hardwood floors and spilling dark soil at white Converse shoes. Minhyuk steps away from the mess with a sheepish bow and white sneakers still pure and unstained. "Sorry! I'm really sorry."'

"It's fine," Hyungwon sighs. It's too late to scold him, and, anyway, it's not that Minhyuk could've really stopped it from dropping.

He looks to his laptop again and sucks in a sharp breath, clicking off all the tabs until there's nothing left but the desktop staring at him of some default picture he'd never had the energy to change.

So, there's nothing on the Internet to fix this. Hyungwon isn't too ecstatic having to figure this one out for himself, but he did decide to play with the spirit world. It's difficult manipulating how things work when it comes to spirits, and Hyungwon knew, being untrained and insecure in his "gift," that something was more likely to go wrong than right. He'd just hoped—foolishly—that maybe he could find a way for things to work in his favor for once.

Minhyuk awkwardly stands across from him with intertwined hands, eyes scanning the room with curiosity and something else useful to do with himself. Hopefully something that had nothing to do with breaking any more of Hyungwon's things. "Well," he murmurs, "how do you know that I'm dead?"

"Because it's obvious."

"But how do you  _know?_ " Minhyuk challenges. He rocks back and forth on his heels, and then decides this conversation would be much more enjoyable trailing around the room. "I don't feel dead. Kind of. I don't even remember dying. That must mean that I'm not dead, right?"

"I don't know." Hyungwon shrugs. "It probably just depends."

"Or maybe I'm just in a coma. People don't remember going into comas all the time, you know? This could just be in the weird, in-between stage where I'm waiting to wake up, right?"

"Can't really say I agree with that."

Minhyuk soundlessly drops onto the edge of Hyungwon's bed. He slouches, frowning like before. "So, that's all? This is it? I'm just stuck here with you?"

"Seems like it," Hyungwon tells him. "For now, at least."

Minhyuk huffs, his overgrown bangs flying from his forehead before messily falling back into place.

"Yeah," Hyungwon murmurs, turning back to the closed laptop on his desk, "me too."

 

 

 

. . . 

 

 

 

 

 

Minhyuk is waiting for Hyungwon when he steps from the bathroom, dark hair still wet from his shower and eyes droopy from the small hours of restless sleep he'd managed. Minhyuk is like an impatient puppy sitting on the arm of his couch for his owner to take him for a morning stroll. Hyungwon's sure if he looked hard enough he could see a wagging tail, enthralled at the thought of being given some attention.

"You're not coming to class with me," Hyungwon establishes. 

Instantly, Minhyuk pouts, shooting up onto his legs. "What? Why not?"

"Because you're dead, for one, and two, you're just going to bother me the whole time while I'm taking my exam."

"I won't bother you!" Minhyuk promises, and he's already whining, desperately scrambling off after Hyungwon as he disappears into the kitchen to find some sort of breakfast in his cabinets. "Please? I'll be so quiet you won't even know I'm there!"

Really, it doesn't matter how quiet Minhyuk is. Ghosts are only seen when they want to be seen, and Hyungwon is one of the few people who still feels and sees when they're there. He can communicate too, if he wants. But he doesn't. Usually. Ghosts just naturally hover towards him, curious and looking for something that he can never give them. Even if he tried.

(Hyungwon doesn't know if this connection he has with ghosts is a power. It seems to be a curse, if he had to put a label on it. Something burdensome and absolutely useless he'd discovered when he was a child.)

Hyungwon slips two slices of bread into his toaster and turns to Minhyuk. "You're not coming to class with me," he says again, sternly.

"Then what am I supposed to do all day?" Minhyuk asks, like that's _Hyungwon's_ problem. "I can't even pick up anything yet!"

"You'll get better at it," Hyungwon shrugs, a quick, careless rise and fall of the shoulder.

"Not in a few hours!"

"You're not coming to class with me," Hyungwon tells him again.

Minhyuk ends up trailing after him anyway, smiling and practically skipping at Hyungwon's side as he drags himself to the bus stop.

("Is the weather nice today, Hyungwon?" Minhyuk asks. "Is the wind blowing? By the way, how long is your exam? Is there anything for me to do while you're taking it? Will I be able to sit beside you?"

"Minhyuk."

"Yes."

" _Please_ , shut up."

Minhyuk sheepishly smiles, and Hyungwon sighs, (whether it being of relief or exasperation, he's unsure,) burying his hands in the pockets of his jeans and basking in the silence with the cold air brushing his skin. It's the only exam he has today, but Hyungwon isn't sure how he'll last the rest of the week with Minhyuk at his side, with _so much_ of everything else taking over his life it almost feels like there's no room for even the thought of school.

"Hey, Hyungwon —"

_"Minhyuk."_

"Right. Sorry.")

 

 

 

. . .

 

 

 

 

"What were you doing trying to summon a ghost anyway?" Minhyuk asks. He's learned to float by now and does it every chance that he gets, levitating randomly whenever he pleases. Hyungwon glances up at him sitting just an inch above the couch. "Don't you have a connection to ghosts already?"

"Yeah," he murmurs, distracted as his eyes find the screen of his laptop once again. There's still nothing to help him. Nothing to tell him what to do with a ghost he'd summoned. The wrong ghost.

"Then why summon a ghost?"

"Because it's easier than trying to find them."

"Huh," Minhyuk nods. "Who were you trying to summon?"

"Some guy in one of my classes," Hyungwon tells him. He clicks off a tab and stares, contemplating, before his thin fingers slowly tap across the keyboard again.

"Just some guy?"

"I sat beside him," he explains. "I used his pen before he died. I wanted to make sure we were on good terms."

Minhyuk stares at him as if he's waiting for something else, and then bursts into a laugh. It touches all of Hyungwon's nerves, shooting like a sudden chill through Hyungwon so intensely he has to shake it out of his limbs.

"I'm stuck here over a _pen?_ " Minhyuk huffs throughout chuckles. He drops onto the couch as a flutter and lies on the arm of it, his laughter turning into small wheezes. "You can get a pack of pens for under two thousand won, and you think this guy's going to haunt you over _one_ p-pen? What kind of guy was he?"

Hyungwon shoots him a glare. "I don't think it's that funny."

"It's hilarious!" He floats to Hyungwon's arm of the couch once he sits upright, brows furrowing once his eyes find the screen of the laptop. His smile slowly fades. "Hey. That's a photo of me."

"Yeah." Hyungwon bites his lip and steals a glance of Minhyuk who can only stares at the article in front of him, lips slightly parted in surprise. "You don't have to read it if —"

"It's fine," Minhyuk quickly assures him, and it makes sense for him to be so shocked. Hyungwon hasn't spent a lot of time wondering how Minhyuk feels having to come to terms with the fact his life is suddenly over, but he assumes it must be a little sad, even if he doesn't remember anything from it except the feel of being alive.

Hyungwon slowly scrolls through the article with Minhyuk silently reading over his shoulder. It first tells a brief description about who Minhyuk was.

Hyungwon learns that he was almost in his second year of serving in the military, he and Hyungwon went to the same college, and that Minhyuk was apparently someone a lot of people would always remember.

Minhyuk purses his lips when they reach the end of the article, and Hyungwon slowly closes his laptop, deciding this is enough Internet for the day.

"I died in the military," he murmurs.

"Yup."

"... Falling off a balcony," Minhyuk quietly continues. A deep sigh escapes his lips as all of this washes over him. "I fell off a balcony and _died_ trying to get a good selfie angle."

It must take some time to let this sink in. Not that Hyungwon would know, but he assumes that it's shocking and that he definitely shouldn't laugh right now. He knows not to laugh right now so he pulls at his lip with his teeth and balls his hands into fists, trying to focus on the pressure in his palm instead of laughing. Laughing is the insensitive thing to do. Hyungwon knows this.

But once a tiny chuckle slips, he's already laughing loudly, hiding his face behind his laptop like maybe if he conceals the laugh, Minhyuk just won't hear it. 

 _"Ya!"_ he whines. "I died! Show some compassion!"

"That selfie," Hyungwon chokes through a laugh, "was literally killer!"

Minhyuk is unamused. "That was the worst joke ever. It's not even like — it sucks really badly."

"How many followers do you have to have on your SNS to die for a selfie?" Hyungwon hits the sofa, trying to intake air into his lungs. "You're a complete idiot!"

"Don't speak ill of the dead!"

"You lived twenty-three years just to fall off a balcony over a selfie!" Minhyuk pushes him, but it only sends Hyungwon lying on the couch, laughing until tears are falling from his eyes. "I summoned the dumbest ghost!"

"You're _so_ mean!"

"I'm sorry," Hyungwon chuckles. He carefully sits up as if it pains him, a hand over his stomach, and dramatically wipes the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry you died like that. You just wanted to take a selfie. There's nothing wrong with that."

"You're awful," Minhyuk smiles. He floats back to where he'd been partially sitting before, legs crossing Indian style. "Do you think you could print that photo out for me?"

"The one of you?"

Minhyuk nods. Hyungwon doesn't see the purpose of having it besides Minhyuk being terribly conceited, but he agrees anyway, opening his laptop again and letting Minhyuk beam a little longer at the picture of who he used to be.

 

 

 

. . .

 

 

 

It doesn't really freak Hyungwon out that much that he has a dead guy's pen. 

Of course he sees the paucity of correlation between a pen and haunting someone when you die, and he knows there's no way him misplacing a borrowed pen could've caused this guy to drown over the weekend (there's enough on his plate already,) but he has a fucking dead guy's gel pen. The Dead Guy. Just chilling on his desk, untouched for a good two weeks, because Hyungwon isn't touching a fucking dead guy's gel pen he'd forgotten to return before he died.

He doesn't think anything bad will happen to him keeping a dead guy's gel pen, or that _anything_ will happen for that matter. But he'd thought to himself (briefly, because he'd went and summoned the wrong ghost) that if he knew how to summon a ghost he'd be able to find a way to take advantage of this "gift" that's only proven itself to be useless since he'd discovered it.

Hyungwon didn't cry when his brother died. He hated seeing his family so upset and it hurt him that there were so many things Hyungwon has experienced that he'd been excited for his brother to, but there was no reason to cry because he knew that he'd see him again. Hanging around the house somewhere, maybe sometime when Hyungwon's taking the bus to school or lingering around his brother's favorite convenience store. Hyungwon always looked out for his younger brother and waited for the day he'd catch a glimpse of him. It wasn't as easy as Hyungwon had expected.

All of his life, ghosts came to him; Hyungwon never had to look.

He knew that sometimes ghosts stayed behind. They kept their houses off the market by scaring people away from them, mourned their own deaths, searched for some sort of closure, found someone like Hyungwon to say goodbye to their families or give their loved ones something sentimental to keep for the rest of their lives, until they faded from earth and, probably, went somewhere else that's more and better than this.

And then there are others who instantly go there. Hyungwon assumes this is just what happened to his brother, and he's going to need more than just his power to speak to him.

Hyungwon believes that if he can summon a ghost successfully, he'll be able to summon his brother like how he'd happened to summon Minhyuk.

Sure, he's the wrong ghost, but it was obvious that Minhyuk spent no time on earth after falling off that balcony. He can't even teleport, for fucks sake. He couldn't even throw an object to defend himself if he had to.

Maybe he could summon his brother to properly tell him goodbye and that he loves him.

But it'd scared him that he'd have more random ghost chilling around his house, breaking his vases and yapping away in his ears, and it scared him that his brother would appear and wouldn't even recognize him.

 

 

 

. . .

 

 

 

 

It's still dark when Hyungwon wakes up to talking in his ear. His hands flail around absently, as if the sound can just be swatted away, before he rolls away from the voice, cuddling more into his warm blankets.

"Hyungwon," he hears again. "Wake up."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

Minhyuk groans and Hyungwon sinks into his blankets hoping it'll teleport him into another portal where he can sleep peacefully. "I'm bored," he says. "You've been sleeping for hours, and I have nothing to do."

"Sounds like a you problem," Hyungwon yawns. He groggily rolls over onto his stomach as Minhyuk groans again.

"Please wake up! I'm tired of waiting!"

"Stop whining like a little baby."

"Please wake up!"  Minhyuk begs, whining intensified. He pushes Hyungwon and sends an arm and leg dangling limp from the side of the bed. "I'm lonely. I don't have anyone to talk to."

It's not Hyungwon's problem at all, but Hyungwon isn't much of a fighter when he's deprived of sleep. Huffing, he sits up, hair scattered over his head in a mess and Minhyuk's face lighting with a smile.

They sit in the living room on the sofa that they always sit on and watch the news together, Hyungwon wrapped in a blanket with droopy eyelids and toast and Minhyuk accompanying him with the printed photo of himself. 

It'll probably be the only photo Minhyuk will have of himself. He looks much more mature in it than he does now, but Hyungwon's pretty sure it's just the military uniform or the fact that his bangs are pushed into the cap away from his face and the fact that he's not smiling, like Hyungwon's so used to waking up to every morning. Minhyuk's blinding smile. It's like watching him look at a photo of himself from the future. Maybe it feels that way for Minhyuk too, since he has no memory of it.

"I was probably a good person," Minhyuk says to the photo resting in his lap. He looks very satisfied with it, a tiny smile tugging at his face. "I wish I had more. I had to have a lot of friends, right? I'm so good looking!"

Hyungwon can only muster a small laugh this early in the morning.

"What? Look at me! I bet I was planning to be a model after serving!"

Heslowly nods. "Okay."

"Why wasn't I someone else so I could date myself?" Minhyuk mutters. "Do you think you can find more photos of me?"

"I don't know," Hyungwon grumbles. "Maybe later, when you haven't fucked up my sleeping schedule, I can try to find your SNS accounts."

Minhyuk accepts this and looks to his photo again, beaming.

 _How cute,_ Hyungwon thinks. But he doesn't know how he thinks that, or why. He doesn't find Minhyuk cute. He can't really find a ghost cute. He's not a fan of ghosts, and Minhyuk is just on a different level. Clingy and _very clingy,_ and died while trying to find a good selfie angle. And besides that, Hyungwon could never find someone cute who doesn't think his jokes are funny and wakes him up too early.

But —

_well..._

His smile is cute. Sort of. That's all Hyungwon will give him. 

He shivers at the thought and looks at the TV again, hoping one of the glances he steals of Minhyuk's smile will help him contradict that.

 

 

 

. . .

 

 

 

Hyungwon lets Minhyuk trail along with him everywhere because he's too lazy to put up a fight.

They go grocery shopping together, even though Hyungwon always gets weird stares every time he can't help scolding the ghost, and Minhyuk helps him shop for clothes too where he disagrees with _everything_ Hyungwon picks out and tries to slip some things in the cart when Hyungwon isn't paying attention.

Minhyuk trails off with him to work at the small cafe near their college campus too where he always finds a chair and sleeps, his head lolled back on the top of it and his hands resting in his lap. 

Hyungwon didn't even know that ghosts could sleep, but Minhyuk loses energy the more he learns. Not that he's learning anything during Hyungwon's shift, but he tries a little harder more and more every day to pick up things without dropping them, vacuuming Hyungwon's living room and being able to hold the handle for one minute straight, levitating and stealing candy for Hyungwon at convenience stores. Sometimes, he just shuts down, but he's back up and floating after an hour or so, energy intensified and overwhelming.

It's still sort of like carrying around a puppy. Sometimes, Hyungwon tries to imagine what Minhyuk was like before he died. He wonders what type of people he hung around, the activities he'd done, his likes and dislikes and if he was always a burst of sunshine with everyone he'd met.

Sometimes, Hyungwon imagines what it'd be like now if Minhyuk was alive.

He wonders if Minhyuk would be as clingy, if he'd speak to Hyungwon as much as he did now. He wonders if whenever Minhyuk became bored while Hyungwon was asleep, if he'd just open the door and walk out and come back whenever Hyungwon's fully awake and ready to pay him some attention.

It was a silly thought, like whenever Hyungwon wonders how Minhyuk would feel if he were solid with body heat and blood running through his veins. Wonders how warm he'd feel whenever Minhyuk was annoying him and hugged him. Wonders how soft and warm and comforting his hands would feel if Hyungwon decided to just reach over and hold them.

 

 

 

. . .

 

 

 

Hyungwon is stunned when Minhyuk first kisses him.

It takes a few seconds for him to understand that Minhyuk's lips are brushing his, and it is just as unfamiliar and different as Hyungwon has sometimes imagined it.

But it's soft. 

"To be honest," Minhyuk says, "I know how to leave."

"What?"

"I figured out how to leave a while ago," he explains sheepishly, avoiding Hyungwon's eyes. "I didn't want to tell you."

"I wouldn't have kicked you out," Hyungwon tells him.

Minhyuk looks up, eyes narrowing skeptically. He cocks his head. "Really?"

"No, I definitely would've kicked you out."

Hyungwon can't help but to laugh at the frown on Minhyuk's face. He wishes he could place both hands at his cheeks, gently brush his finger over skin. 

"Sorry," Minhyuk softly apologizes."Is it okay if I stay a little while longer?"

"It's okay," Hyungwon smiles, and, hesitantly, he inches closer to fill the space between them. 

He thinks that he likes it. He wonders if it's okay that he thinks he likes Minhyuk too.


End file.
